B2C (business to consumer)
Under this system, consumers buy goods directly from manufacturers or any other businessmen. B2C sales can refer to any sales process that sells directly to consumers though it tends to refer specifically to retail sales. It is among the most popular and widely known of sales models. Examples of B2C sales reps would be sales reps selling cars, gym memberships, or stereo systems.
The idea of B2C was first utilized by Michael Aldrich in 1979, who used television as the primary medium to reach out to consumers. B2C marketing is one of the most popular business strategies to date, but there are still potential hurdles of which every B2C marketer must be aware of. In recent years, the growth in business-to-consumer online sales has created significant challenges for traditional “brick-and-mortar” businesses and services that are losing in-person sales to online competitors. Most companies that sell directly to consumers can be referred to as B2C companies. B2B commerce can be divided into some specific categories. These include:
- Direct sellers- Like Amazon, Banana Republic and Zappos that sell directly to customers. They can be manufacturers such as Gap or Dell or small businesses that create and sell products, but they can also be online versions of department stores selling products from a wide range of brands and manufacturers.
- Online Intermediaries- Such as Amazon.com, they act as an intermediary and can broker deals between two parties. Examples include online travel sites such as Expedia and Trivago and arts and crafts retailer Etsy.
- Fee-Based models- Such as Spotify and Netflix offer content on demand for a fee. These direct-to-consumer sites charge a subscription fee for access to their content.
- Advertising-Based- This model uses high-quality free content to attract site visitors, who then encounter online ads. Media outlets that have no paid subscription component, such as the Huffington Post and Observer.com, are examples.
- Community-Based- The best-known example is Facebook, which helps marketers target ads to people according to very specific demographics.
